TECHNOLOGY STREAM SPEAKERS

Robyne Bowering

Director
Step Up Education

Robyne Bowering

DirectorStep Up Education

Philip Carew

Head of Digital Technologies & eLearning
Toorak College

Philip Carew

Head of Digital Technologies & eLearningToorak College

Phil is the Head of Digital Technologies & eLearning at Toorak College, Mount Eliza. His specialty area of study is VCE Media and Junior Technology. Phil is a Google Certified Trainer and Educator. He is proficient in the use of a range of technology tools to support the teaching and learning in and out of the classroom, which he shares with colleagues and students in order to gain the best outcomes. He has a passion for digital technologies, student engagement, reporting and assessment. Phil uses a range of GSuite tools to provide feedback and foster collaboration within the classroom.

Henry Grossek

Principal
Berwick Lodge Primary School

Henry Grossek

PrincipalBerwick Lodge Primary School

Henry is the founding principal of Berwick Lodge Primary School, a government school of 630 students, located in south-east Melbourne and which opened in 1990. Henry has postgraduate qualifications in educational leadership and has tutored in school leadership at Deakin University. Henry hosts a weekly current affairs program, Viewpoints, on Casey Radio 97.7FM and has a regular column, Grossek’s View, in Themes Education magazine. Henry is the author of a number of books including 5 illustrated children’s stories and Game On: Building the Education Revolution – an account of his 4-year battle with authorities to secure a fair deal for his school under the BER program.

Amy Moore

Relieving Assistant Principal
Harrington Public School

Amy Moore

Relieving Assistant PrincipalHarrington Public School

Amy Moore is currently the Relieving Assistant Principal of Harrington Public School. Prior to her permanent employment at HPS since January 2010, Amy has taught across many schools and settings across NSW, Canberra and overseas in the UK.

Amy has over 15 years teaching experience and is a mother of 4 children. She studied her Bachelor of Education (Primary) at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga in rural NSW.

Amy moved to the Mid North Coast of NSW in 2009 and has been teaching Harrington Public School since 2010. She has filled numerous roles across all stages, various relief roles and is now team teaching across Stage 2 and Stage 3 with her teaching colleague, Jason Taylor.

‘Team Aqua’ officially came together last July after Amy and Jason attended the Edutech conference in Sydney. Through collegial discussion, school planning and focus, Amy and Jason realised there was a great need in both their classrooms and they felt ‘stretched’ to attend to the vast array of abilities in both their classrooms. Having a working space where they taught next door, Amy and Jason took down the wall that separated their adjoining classrooms and now team teach in a learning space.

For the previous 2 years under the guidance of Principal Lisa Kirkland, Harrington PS had begun the process of change with implementing Project Based Learning and extensive training and professional learning had taken place. The school also employed flexible seating across all classrooms and was seen as an innovative school that had moved away from traditional classrooms to create collaborative learning environment for students.

Amy and Jason now team teach a class of 46 students from Years 3-6. They have 2 SLSOs, a Chaplain and many volunteers in their classroom. Their classroom space is a progressive culture of learning that builds educational aspiration and ongoing improvement across its school community by providing high quality, stimulating and enriching future learning environments. Amy and Jason model and share a flexible repertoire of strategies such as Inquiry Based Learning, goal setting and learning maps for classroom management and promotion of Student Agency as all students take responsibility for their own learning.

Stella Jinman

Principal
Cecil Andrews College

Stella Jinman

Principal Stella Jinman initiated Cecil Andrews Collegeto be the first School in the State to trial the P-TECH Pilot program. The P-TECH program involves long term partnerships between industry, schools and tertiary education providers, which enables businesses to play an active role in the learning and career development of their future workforce. Stella and Cecil Andrews College are working collaboratively with a number of locally based corporate employer partners including: Austal, Thales Group, Civmec Construction & Engineering, Deloitte Australia, HP and Datacom Australia. The College is currently also working with Engineering Australia and SalesForce.

Stella successfully attained $5m in state funding to build a state of the art, purpose built STEM Centre at Cecil Andrews College that won an award in 2018. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) Centre, with pedagogy focused around the P-TECH program, was designed with flexible, interactive spaces able to transform and accommodate. The STEM centre provides a space for emergent technologies, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality; drones, robotics, cyber safety and biochemical projects. It’s about inviting children into education and making it so appealing they cannot resist.

In 2013 Cecil Andrews College faced closure. Since taking on the Principal role, Stella Jinman has in just six years turned Cecil Andrews College into a Teacher Development School; specialising in STEM, Innovation and Technology with Specialists Arts and AFL Programs at its core. Year 12 Attainment levels increased from 33% to 100% along with a significant improvement in literacy and numeracy among many other student achievements.

Stella is a future-focused, educational leader with a strong drive for innovating transformation in student centred education. Her background in the leadership of a diverse range of schools has resulted in holistic twenty first century education that engages and is inclusive of all students. She has influenced, formed and maintained new and effective long term partnerships, which have transformed education into ecosystems where students are in supported pathways of learning. She drives teams to innovate classroom practice that is contemporary and reflects the current needs of students.

An innovative and forward thinking leader, Stella Jinman is blending 21st Century technologies into the curriculum, to map the content to real-world skills that are needed in the work places of the future.

Edmund Misson

Acting Chief Executive Officer
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

Corporate Headshot

Edmund Misson

Acting Chief Executive OfficerAustralian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

Edmund Misson is the Acting CEO of AITSL and brings to the organisation a depth of experience in education and public service.

Prior to this, Edmund has been AITSL’s Deputy CEO. He joined AITSL as a General Manager in 2011, following a distinguished 15-year career in the Victorian Government advising on a range of education, training, and other social policy issues.

Throughout his career, Edmund has focused on policy development and implementation to achieve the best possible outcomes for the community. He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration.

Mary Lou O’Brien

Chief Digital Officer
Melbourne Girls Grammar

Mary-Lou O’Brien

Chief Digital OfficerMelbourne Girls Grammar

Mary-Lou has had a very varied background that includes being one of Australia's internet pioneers when she started Australia's first online retail business in 1997. She then moved into education after obtaining a Masters in eBusiness and Communication and a Diploma in Vocational Education and Training. Mary-Lou has worked at Swinburne University as an eLearning Leader for the School of Business, a Course Convenor and lecturer of eMarketing, eCommerce, Change Management and eBusiness Systems. She moved to Melbourne Girls Grammar in 2009 to take up the role of Director of eLearning and since then, she and her team, have successfully transformed learning at MGGS by introducing online environments that extend the student's capacity to learn independently and collaboratively.

To complete the digital transformation at Melbourne Girls Grammar she accepted the role of Chief Digital Officer at the end of 2017, and whilst it encompasses what was previously eLearning, she now oversees the complete digital ecosystem to ensure it meets the School’s strategic intent and to fortify Melbourne Girls Grammars place at the leading edge of education innovation. In recognition of this she was a finalist for the CIO of the year award as well as making the Educators 2018 Hot List.

Manjeet Singh

Researcher
Deakin University

Manjeet Singh

ResearcherDeakin University

Manjeet is a researcher with Deakin University’s School of IT, his research focuses in designing web-based software incorporating usability and persuasiveness using user-centred design principles. He is also an IT Consultant in his own software company assisting clients to develop applications using emerging technologies in areas of web and mobile Augmented Reality (AR).

As a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Consultant, he was part of the team that worked on Singapore’s IT in Education Masterplan in the year 2000, doing applied research and development in delivering usable software for use in classrooms. He speaks 6 Asian languages fluently and have developed an eLearning portal to teach Asian languages to beginners. Manjeet has been involved in 2 ICT startups over the last 20 years in the IT field and works each day to achieve a higher goal towards building a harmonious society. He graduated with a B.Eng. (Mechanical) degree from Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) with specialisation in Human Factors Engineering and has a M.Sc. (IT) research degree from Deakin University. He is currently pursuing his PhD and lives in Melbourne with his wife who is a teacher-trainer and a teenage daughter.

Tamara Sullivan

Head of Academics & Innovation
Ormiston College

Tamara Sullivan

Head of Academics and InnovationOrmiston College

Tamara is the Head of Academics and Innovation at Ormiston College and facilitates the College’s directions in 21st century teaching and learning. She understands the new and changing demands of the teaching profession and believes that building capacity is the cornerstone of a contemporary school. She is an innovator who leads e-learning, blended learning, curriculum development and the meaningful use of technology across the profession.

Tamara coordinates the College’s Learning Innovations Leadership Committee which was created to lead innovation, improvement and transformational change across the campus. She supports members to share their findings with the wider community through online forums, conferences and publications.

She is a well-known member in the global educational community and regularly conducts key note addresses, professional development workshops and online webinars. The presentations have a strong focus on shifting educators’ understanding of student learning in 21st century environments, and practical strategies on how to build a culture of innovation.

In 2016, Tamara was awarded the Excellence in Educational Leadership Award by the Australian Council for Educational Leaders in Queensland, and the Australian College of Educators Fellowship Award for her demonstrated leadership in implementing educational initiatives to improve outcomes for students in 21st century environments. In 2017, she was also awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leaders New Voice Scholarship for her contemporary leadership Australian education.

Jason Taylor

Stage 3 Classroom Teacher
Harrington Public School

Jason Taylor

Stage 3 Classroom TeacherHarrington Public School

Jason Taylor completed the Bachelor of Education in 2015. During his university studies, Jason also completed his Diploma of Counselling, Certificate IV in Teaching and Assessment, and Certificate I in Aboriginal Language: Gathang, all whilst working in a Primary School as a Student Learning Support Officer. After completing his studies in 2015, Jason gained full time employment at Harrington Public School (HPS).

In 2016,Jason took up the role of Internal Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) coach for HPS, which lead into becoming the PBL Network Coach of the Manning and Forster areas in 2018, a role which includes organising and delivering professional development opportunities to many schools across the extended local areas.In 2018, Jason became a member of the Hastings Network STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Committee in 2018, which endeavours to identify and deliver project-based and future-focused information and practises to many schools across the Hastings region in the Mid North Coast of NSW. Further to this role, Jason co-presented professional development to teachers and executives that aimed to share successful learning practises for promoting student agency and provide ideas and tools to assist other schools to implement similar practises.Additionally, Jason attended the Ignite the Spark conference in 2018 at the University of New South Wales, along with the Principal of Harrington Public School, Lisa Kirkland. Jason and Lisa presented at the conference during a breakout session; this presentation primarily shared current practises of HPS that promote student agency via inquiry and project-based learning.

Jason and fellow teacher, Amy Moore, attended the EduTECH conference at the International Convention Centre in Sydney in 2018 and, during the conference,decided to combine their classes to trial team-teachinga larger group across Stage Two and Three. From Term Three 2018, Jason and Amy established an upper primary learning space in HPS thatopenedamazing opportunities for all students in a differentiated, personal, flexible and intrinsically engaging learning environment.